Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-10-24
The Time of Harvest.

and high-born, . yet not happy. The
sunlight is declining, the golden haze
of the summers day has been wrap
/ ped together like a soft vail. and roll
ed away. There is nothing oppress-
i've in the stiffness, and nature seems
to revive. Yet the lady's heart is i'll
at ease.
''Oh, all We green things upon the
earth, bless We the Lord praise Him,
and magnify Him forever -
Like a forgotten chime, the
words that she had heard chanted by
trained voices IN a harvest thanks
; giving service long ago, came back
to her. All through her ramble earth
and heaven seemed to be keeping up
a iubilant chorus, but her heart had
no song. The Honorable May Ha-
worth, in her early womanhOOd, fair
est and apparently most blessed of
created things around, turned from
the bending corn, which seemed to
salute her as she passed and own her
queen, in selfish discomfort.
The country was not May Haworth's S
home, and she had not yet learned to
love it. She was in it against her will.
The flowers she had gathered hung
idlv from her hand. At first the fra
GRANGE of woodbine and meadow
sweet, the beauty of the harebell and
! marguerite, the Ceres-like arrange
ment of blue and scarlet poppy with
/ golden ears, had charmed her. She
had sucked the honey from the mod
| est cowslip. It was so different from
! the country in town the Parks in
their season. But the momeDtary
! feeling of novelty and pleasure, the
sense of freedom and joy in exist
ence, passed away, and gave place to
sad thoughts once more.
She had enjoyed one season in
town; a few months of excitement,
which flashed over her life with a
strange meteor brightness that sud-
denly went out. Only its remem-
brance was left as a faint trail of
light, to render the present ''darkness
/ visible
The daughter of Lord Haworth,
the child of a noble house, though
her family were poor for their posi-
ton, and her dowry would be nil, had
many suitors. She tasted the intoxi-
cation of power; she revelled in ad-
miration and pleasure. From her
still thirsty lips the cup of JOY was
rlthleSslv oHatUlIUd ~~~yay
"My daughter said Lady Ha-
worth, Mays mother, Lord Lis
combe appears your slave"
''Then 1 shall never be his, was
the proud reply.
''My child, how gauche you are !
OF course not. You may rule him, if
you please"
''Yes, after he has bought me !
Mother, [ am not to be disposed of
like a horse or dog, to man | de-
test, because he has more thousands
than we have. 1t is barely possible
thet l may have heart"
Now Lady Haworth had not taken
this into consideration. A heart-a
young, warm, undisciplined heart
might possibly prove an obstacle. 1t
was an incOnvenient, not to say a
dangerous possession. The next tding
might be getting rid of it by bestow-
ing it upon some good-lOoking boy
without money or title.
Lord Haworth was called upon to
interfere. He had very little voice
in his own house, poor man; never
theless, his wife cOntrived to put him
upon his mettle in this matter. Then
his daughters spirit rose, and she
gave Lord Liscombe plainly to un-
derstand that she herself had to be
won, and no one had a right to dis
pose of her without her entire con-
sent.
The consequence was that she was
banished, fairly banished, to the
country seat of her maternal uncle,
old General Durant. There in lone
illness and solitude, with no cOmpan-
ionship, but that of a maiden aunt, it
was hoped that the Honorable May
would come to her senses.
And so she did; but in different
way from what her parents expected.
Her uncle was indulgent to a GER
good old-fashloned rules which no
one thought of infringing. She did
not venture to absent herself from
morning and evening prayers, and
had to walk to the village church on
tlIC was ACfSA
taken out on that day.
In her uncle's high-backed pew in
the village church May felt inclined
to nod. Dream she certainly did,
though not of ''Ruth the beautiful"
The cleaners were not at work to-day
among the barley. A Sabbath still
ness was in the air.
''Put We in the sickle; for the har-
| vest is ripe The text reused her
a little. Then she heard of mighty
ingathering, with the thought of
which she was not familiar-heard
of it with a momentary vague won
der, which did not deepen into alarm.
Not in the village church, not in